Glitch
by Saberpilot
Summary: A young hacker finds herself in the middle of something she does not understand, and a past and future that could change the entire future of the matrix. PG-13 for language. (Chapter 4 Up!)
1. Reboot

A/N: this is my first attempt at a Matrix fanfic. Please enjoy, and know that I do not own the matrix, or the company that made it, or anything as such.   
  
That being said, enjoy! (and please, review!)  
  
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Sweat. The sweet nectar passed down the sides of her temples as the young female typed furiously on her keyboard. Things were always clearer when she was online. Things seemed to fall into place, like the digits of 0 and 1 in basic code, clear with precision and order.  
  
She took a moment to wipe her forehead with the back of her cloth biking gloves, and continued on her slip into the datastream. This, this was real. Nothing else in this world seemed real except what a computer could offer. Not her parents, her friends, even the world that she lived and breathed in. Finally, the script that she'd been searching for came through for her.   
  
"Come on, come on.." she whispered to her burner drive as she uploaded the forbidden fruit of numbers and digits that she'd worked so hard to find. Finally, the disk was completely filled and she sighed, her mission for the night complete.  
  
Sitting back, Saber lazily exited herself out of the port she'd just been in, and covered her tracks with the fake codes of datastream she'd manufactured just for times like this. Closing her eyes, the young hacker looked at the fruit of her labors.  
  
She could get 10 grand for this easily. The only problem was finding a reliable buyer. People could always pull a stunt last minute and try to rob you. The girl nodded off, her hands finishing their furious pace, the computer finally back from its trip into cyberspace.   
  
Sighing, she turned off the computer, then somehow made it into her small bed that sat in the corner. There was no way she'd be able to get up for school now. Oh well if her mom yelled. She didn't care anymore..  
  
These were the young hacker's last thoughts as she drifted off into the nothingness of sleep. After all, she had told herself, hackers don't dream. They only know and rely on the information they had.  
  
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Morning came, and the elusive program sat on the desk on her computer desk still. Glancing at the clock, the young woman sighed. She still had half an hour before she'd have to get up. She had been looking forward to another bellow from her mom.  
  
Getting up, Sarah Kittaning looked in the mirror at herself. Lean, no part of her body heavy, and pale from lack of sun. Fingers whose outlines only showed bone and strong muscles. Yes. She was definitely worthy of the title hacker.  
  
Rummaging through her bureau, Sarah found a black t-shirt and a pair of pants. Slipping into them, she readied herself for school, then went downstairs to grab a bite to eat before she'd have to go to the insane asylum for teens, high school. Her mother was already downstairs.  
  
"You're up early." The disgruntled face gave her that motherly look, then inhaled another puff of her cigarette. "You sick or something?"  
  
"No, mom." Sarah said, pulling out a bowl of cereal and dumping some milk into it. She sat down at the wooden table, the scratches in the surface appearing deeper against the pale light of morning.  
  
"You ought to get more sleep, dear, you look tired-" she reached out with a hand to stroke her daughter's face, but Sarah dodged out of the way slightly, giving her mother a look of defiance.  
  
"I'm fine. Perfectly fine."  
  
"I see. Well, fine then. You won't mind cleaning the dishes when you get home, do you?" She looked Sarah straight in the eyes and gave her a searching look.  
  
"I'll do it," Sarah muttered, cleaning up her dishes and setting them in the sink, where a million more sat. She started to go off, when her mom grabbed her wrist gently. Sarah looked back at her.  
  
"I know you're upset.. I understand that you're mad that your father left us.. but can you at least try to act a little more human? I see the light in your room on at night, and I hear your furious typing. You need to remember, human is what you are- we all need things, dear, love, feelings.."  
  
Sarah pulled her arm away. "You say that, but you don't seem to mind that my typing is what pays the bills. I just pulled a program last night that I can get about 10 grand for-"  
  
"I'm not ungrateful, if that's what you're suggesting. We do need that money, for my medical bills and such.. I just wish you'd fit in a bit more in your school, go out and have fun with friends, spend a bit of that money you're making on yourself. It's not healthy to live the way you've been for the past three months."  
  
"Yeah. Well, I've got to go to school mom. See you later."  
  
With that, Sarah grabbed her pack laying on a chair nearby and headed out the door of their small apartment, running down the stairs and out the door of the apartment complex. Her mother sat in her chair and finally broke down, sobbing into her hands.   
  
Sarah headed out the same way she did every day, across the rusted metal playground of her youth, and then into the alleyway that was a shortcut to her high school.   
  
She didn't know something would happen that day that might change her life. Sarah, aka Saber, didn't expect unexpected things. But unexpected things are exactly what she received.  
  
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Before she stepped into the school, Sarah noticed some of the popular girls sitting on the steps in front of her high school, chatting about their newest acquisitions in fashion and clothing. Sarah rolled her eyes. Things like that were very mundane and stupid.   
  
Just then, when watching the girls, something caught her eye.  
  
She thought at first it must have been some optical illusion, but it was too quick to be that. One of the popular girls' glasses changed into a black pair of shades, and her head quickly turned into a male's, with a serious expression and a black suit to match.   
  
Blinking, Sarah looked again. The girl was the girl once again.  
  
"I must be losing my marbles," she said aloud to herself as she entered the school. She looked once more at the girl, and shook her head. This was starting out to be one weird day.  
  
Classes went normally that day, boring lecture one after the other. Yes, she knew all about stupid electrons and atoms. But what did it all amount to anyways? Sarah didn't need any of that to hack a system. All she needed were her two hands and her own willpower.   
  
Sighing, she stared up at the chemistry teacher, Mr. Young. He was okay, for a teacher. He knew his material, but like all single males over 40, he had a taste for low shirts and high skirts. Sarah found him eerily smart, and wondered sometimes if he knew of her double life.  
  
Just when she was looking at him, the strange optical illusion happened again. Black glasses appeared on Mr. Young's face, and suddenly his whole manner changed into a straight jacketed man with a black suit and tie on. He started to walk directly to where Sarah sat. She clenched the sides of her desk with a death grip.  
  
"Mr. Young?" she asked, shaking her head and looking again. The optical illusion had not melted away this time. The shaded man still was there. He drew closer and closer to Sarah, looking in her eyes the whole time, she thought, as the glasses covered his mirrored gaze.   
  
"Saber…" she seemed to hear her other identity come from his lips. Afraid, Sarah closed her eyes.   
  
When she opened them, Mr. Young was standing in front of her, looking at her with a worried expression.   
  
"Sarah, are you okay?" he asked, looking at her with wide eyes.   
  
"I don't know," she answered honestly, her heart still beating a thousand times a minute. Her eyes were wide with fear, her heart still racing a million miles a minute.   
  
"May I go to the bathroom? I.. I'm not feeling so good." She looked up at the teacher, hoping the skirt chaser would buy her excuse.  
  
"Certainly. Just make sure you don't come back in this room until you're well, Sarah, okay?" He said, signing a hall pass and handing the slip to her. The young hacker shook her head and looked at him again before leaving. Mr. Young gave her a strange look before she grabbed her backpack and fled the room.   
  
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What was happening? Sarah grabbed her head with her two open hands. Things were getting hot. That man.. that vision.. whatever it'd been, had known her identity on the nets.. an identity that Sarah had worked very hard to keep separate from her image as Sarah Kittanning.  
  
The sweat poured down her face as she sat in a corner of the girls' restroom. What could she do now? She'd seen these.. creatures twice today. They looked like men, but Sarah knew somewhere deep in her heart that if they didn't walk like men, or talk like them.. They couldn't have been men.  
  
FBI? CIA? No one really knew who the Saber was..   
  
How was she going to get out of this?  
  
She heard a door slam as someone else entered the restroom. It was a girl she recognized, a girl named India Meadows, from her own grade. India looked at Sarah with compassion.  
  
"Hey- are you feeling all-"  
  
Her sentence was caught midway, and Sarah's eyes grew in shock as she noticed that India's face had begun to.. shift was the easiest way to think of it.   
  
It happened just as Mr. Young's had, but this time it was much harder to watch, as India's green eyes slid into horrifyingly black shades and crisp black hair replaced her golden locks. Sarah backed into the corner, her fingers grasping the bricked walls with sweat denying her a grip.  
  
Finally, the creature stood up and looked Sarah straight in the face. Sarah shook in fear; her eyes darted towards the door of the bathroom.. could she make it?  
  
"Hello, Miss Kittanning.. or should I more correctly say, Saber?"  
  
Sarah gulped down the saliva that dripped down her throat.  
  
"Unable to speak, little one? I see. Well, you can also see me, which begs me to ask the question, how?"  
  
"I.. I don't know, you damn creature- why don't you tell me what the hell you want with me anyways? I'm a girl with a mom who's constantly hospitalized, and a deadbeat dad that left me. What do you want?"  
  
The creature smiled.  
  
"Finally, a show of some spunk. No, my dear, it's not the life here that I'm interested in. It's the double life that you live.. The one where you go by the alias 'Saber', a femme fatal hacker whose only life goal is to delve deeper and deeper into the internet to escape her surroundings."  
  
"So? You know my dirty secret. What are you? CIA? FBI?" Sarah let one of her hands slide into her backpack, trying to find something she could throw at the creature's head so she could escape from this prison of a bathroom.  
  
"None of these. Let's just say I'm from a higher branch of your.. dominant government." He paused, then continued. "I'm here to make sure you aren't freed from this place, here." He motioned to the walls around her.  
  
"Well, you did an excellent job earlier," she spat at him, finally finding something heavy in her bookbag. Her graphing calculator. This would do nicely.  
  
"I'm afraid that I have been.. delayed by dealing with other things, Miss Kittanning." The creature looked uncomfortable for a second. "But those other things are of no matter at this second. My main concern is you."  
  
"You are different from the rest here on this planet. Not only have you seen flickers of our existence, you have pried into things you cannot begin to fathom. We also cannot find your source codes for reasons unknown. Therefore, it is the decision of all that we should deal with you. Permanently."  
  
Sarah, still trembling, gripped her calculator tight, then ripped it quickly out of her pack, standing up.  
  
"You'll never get me," she snarled, and threw the missile directly at the creature standing in front of her.  
  
It missed.   
  
Sarah blinked, wondering how it could have missed, because she had a decent aim and had thrown it straight towards him. Then she saw the shapes surrounding his body-   
  
His body was still moving around him.   
  
Finally, the mirror images stopped, to reveal the suited man standing still, holding her calculator in one hand.  
  
"Interesting choice of weaponry, Miss Kittanning. Very interesting. However, it won't help-"  
  
He cut off as Sarah dashed off in a frenzied panic for the girls' restroom door. She pried it open and ran out, her direction the front of the school building. As she ran past the classrooms, she noticed that some of the students were staring directly at her.  
  
At a second glance, those wierd creatures appeared behind her where high school students had once stood. She ran faster.   
  
Finally, Sarah ran out of the school building, and headed home. Home couldn't be like this....  
  
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After running up the nine flights of stairs in the apartment building, Sarah used her jimmying kit to open up the lock on the apartment where she and her mother lived.  
  
Once inside, she took all the heavy furniture that they owned and pushed it up against the door for the apartment. She breathed heavily, the effects of her long run finally catching up to her.   
  
Sarah ran into her room to find the gun she'd hidden from her mom. Ever since her dad had left her and her mom alone four years ago, Sarah had known that she might have to defend herself against some of the thugs in their neighborhood.   
  
But never had she imagined that the thugs that would chase her might be well dressed and wear black shades on their heads. Shaking her hands, Sarah loaded the gun. Guns were faster than throwing a calculator at someone. This would surely kill those thugs.   
  
The young hacker ran into her mother's bedroom and found her mother asleep. Good. This wouldn't disturb her at all then. Sarah kneeled down to the side of her mother's bed to where her mother slept, and grasped her hand once in a tight squeeze.  
  
"I've.. provided for you well if I don't come back. I know I've been distant lately mom.. I love you so much, I just have a hard time telling you." Nervous, Sarah giggled. "Just listen to me.. I can't even tell you how I love you except when you're asleep. Some daughter I am.."  
  
Sarah stepped back, suddenly hearing voices at the front door of her apartment. She grasped the gun she had in her hand, still shaking from fear.   
  
"I know you're in there, Miss Kittanning. We've come to.. erase the problem you've created us."  
  
Sarah walked into her kitchen, afraid of the consequences. She put one foot in front of the other, her breathing steady but shaking.   
  
"You'll never take me alive. I'll make sure of it." Sarah looked at the gun in her hands. If she couldn't kill them, then she'd take her own life. Only for her mother's sake.  
  
"I wouldn't be so sure, Miss Kittanning.." the voice at the door said, and suddenly, Sarah heard scuffling behind her from the doorway. She turned to see her mother standing there.  
  
"Sarah, what's going o-"  
  
Her words were cut off, and a silent scream rushed from Sarah's lips as her mother morphed into one of the horrible black and white nightmares. A tear ran down her face and Sarah pointed the gun at the creature.  
  
"What the HELL did you do to my mother? Change her back, you ASSHOLE!" she swore at the creature with the black shades and tie.  
  
"Miss Kittanning, I am now your mother. I have.. assimilated her, as it were." The creature said. "Now, I do believe we have an appointment with death to keep.."   
  
Sarah held out her arm shakily towards the creature, another tear swarming down her face.  
  
"You asshole- let her go!" She started to cry, uncontrollably, as the man approached her ever quickly.   
  
Just then, the phone rang.   
  
Eager to dance away from the killer, Sarah grabbed the side of the table and beat the man standing in front of her to the phone. For some reason, an angry look crossed his face when the phone had rang.  
  
"Hello?" Sarah answered the call, her voice shaking.  
  
"Sarah? It's me."  
  
"Dad?" Sarah spat into the phone. "What do you want? You go away for four fucking years of my life and expect a return? Now's not the time-"  
  
"Silence, Saber."  
  
Sarah was struck dumb.  
  
"Right now I know you have some bad company. Whatever you do, don't panic. I'm going to get you out of here. This may feel a little wierd.."  
  
"What the hell are you talking about? How do you know my alias- How-"  
  
Her last question was cut off as silver lining ran up her arms and legs, stretching from the reciever of the phone. Sarah tried not to scream as the metallic alloy took over her body, her vision, her whole being.  
  
The manlike creature clawed out at her, enraged and angry. Sarah tried to cry out-  
  
But in that instant, she didn't know where she was, as her body began to dissipate into thin air, and computer codes ran around her body in an eerie dance.....  
  
To be continued... please review! 


	2. Explanations

a/n:Thank you all for your kind comments. I'm glad that you like this ficcie- I was hoping for originality when I wrote it.  
  
Anyways, here's the next chapter: Enjoy!  
  
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Sarah felt the cold metallic lines run up and down her body, her mind going haywire from the sensations that it gave off. Ice-like veins started their way up her neck, into her main stream of her nerve endings. She started to go into shock, the eerie covering finally making its way up to her ears.  
  
"What the hell? Father? What the fucking hell?" Sarah began to scream, but found that her mouth could no longer work properly- as the metal started to attach itself into her throat and deep within the confines of her body.   
  
The man in the black suit who'd assimilated her mother growled, then reached up to grab her.. But when Sarah looked down at her hand, she found that it wasn't there.  
  
In its place were codes of datastream.  
  
Then everything went to a silver color. Sarah couldn't shut her eyes, her eyelids burnt away to somewhere else. She looked everywhere for her body, but she couldn't find it.   
  
The sensation of being born again overwhelmed her, and Sarah felt herself fading from existence. She opened up her mouth to scream again, and felt herself sliding down a bright tunnel, the light growing stronger and stronger from the other end.  
  
She awoke.  
  
Sarah opened up her mouth to scream, but felt the overwhelming urge to take in a deep breath. She opened her mouth and pulled in a great gust of air, her lungs decompressing and filling up with the sweet oxygen that her body required.  
  
Her eyes were sealed shut, it seemed by the seeds that would be in her eyes whenever she awoke. But when she lifted her hand- why was it so heavy to lift- she found that they had been, in fact, sealed by some type of pinkish goo.   
  
When her eyes opened, Sarah found that they stung to use. The light in her eyes was overwhelming, and she couldn't stop herself from squinting at the light. Suddenly a taller figure stepped in the way of the light, blocking its harsh glare.   
  
"Sarah. Or should I more correctly say, Saber."  
  
"Wha.." she had to fight to get her mouth to work. "What the hell.. do you want with me..? Who the hell.. are you?"  
  
"We'll answer the questions when you're rested. First, let's get you out of that pod." With that, he lifted her body out of the goo that she laid in. The man then walked over and laid her gently onto a cotton-covered cot. Sarah tried to reach out and grab the man's sleeve, but he pushed it away.  
  
"When you wake. Get some rest."  
  
It was only when unconciousness hit her that Sarah recognized who had been talking to her. And now, she wanted to slap her father across the face for what she'd been through.   
  
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"Morning." another voice said when Sarah awoke from her latest episode of REM sleep. She blinked, once, twice, before looking directly at the speaker.   
  
She was a woman of early thirties, she guessed, with dark black hair and a slightly lighter complexion. Whenever Sarah gave some effort to look closer, she gasped slightly.  
  
The woman had violet irises.  
  
She smirked at the teenage girl. "So, you finally noticed. And your father said you were a quick one. Quick study is more like it," she said, and laid a blanket on a nearby cot and sat to face the still-lying Sarah.   
  
Just then, the teenager's modesty kicked in and she finally realized exactly how naked she was. Sarah tried to cover herself up quickly, and the woman laughed at her, a throaty, deep laugh.   
  
"Too late for modesty, little one," she said, and threw a blanket with some clothes wrapped in it. The woman stood up and smiled, then turned back and looked at Sarah before she left her alone with her cot once more.  
  
"The name's Crysillis. Don't bother looking for me later. I'll find you when you're ready." With that, she stalked off, away from Sarah. The teenager had a puzzled look on her face.   
  
She stretched, closing her eyes, and then went to put on her shirt.  
  
What she saw made her scream.  
  
On her arms were connection ports, coming out of her hands, upper forearm, and her shoulder. When Sarah tried to pull them out, she felt an agonizing wave of pain coarse through her body. She bit her lip and held back tears.  
  
Glancing at her other arm, Sarah found out that it wasn't just a dream. Her right arm was the same as the left, and her legs.. her legs had the same connection ports, on her lower legs, and her upper thighs. She took her hand, and let it play against her back.   
  
Sarah screamed aloud, the tears spewing down her face.   
  
There were connection ports going all the way down her back. They went through every part of her spinal cord, and when she touched her neck, she saw they continued up it.   
  
When Sarah reached for the back of her head, she just about fainted.   
  
There was a connection port, all right. But a very big one. With an extremely large hole and lots of metallic threads that went through her hair.   
  
Her very short hair.   
  
Sarah sat on the floor and hugged her knees to her chest, her mind already afraid of what she'd see if she dared to look into a mirror. No longer would she be a simple outcast, it was worse than that.   
  
Sarah Kittanning was now a freak.   
  
Still sniffling, she took the clothes that Crysallis had given her a few minutes ago. She slid the shirt on, after finding a few undergarments and putting them on first. Sarah then put the pants that she'd been given. Finally dressed, she ran her hand through her hair, pushing it back out of her eyes.  
  
She stood up and looked at the door of the room she was in. Things couldn't get much grayer around here, she decided, looking at the stale walls with their silver linings. Seeing the handle hold itself out from the rest of the door, Sarah reached for it, her own sight still repulsed by the connections on her hands and arms.   
  
Sarah turned the knob slowly, and let her head in the next room.  
  
"Awake already?" The same voice that had lifted her out of that place with the pink, gooish stuff. The same voice that had talked to her on the phone when her mother had been assimilated.   
  
The voice of her damned father.  
  
The teenager stepped through the doorway and shut the door behind her. She turned her head away from the door and looked straight into the eyes of her father.  
  
"Wait.." she said, realizing that her father looked.. different, was the only way to put it. He didn't have the warm comfy beard that he'd had when she was a child, and he was much thinner than she could remember. His eyes were also tight around the edges, stress obviously having got to him.  
  
But he was also a hell of a lot younger than she remembered.  
  
He held out his hand to her, and mesmerized, Sarah took it, looking at him with strange eyes. He seemed like a stranger to her, and she continued to stare at him, even as he sat her down beside him and looked directly into his eyes.  
  
"You.. you.." she stammered, looking at him. He took his hands and encased hers, then drew her into a hug. Sarah suddenly felt wetness on her cheek, and realized her father was crying. She pulled away and looked at him.  
  
"I.. I'm sorry.." he said, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes. "I never wanted to leave you or your mom.. I just.. I couldn't.."   
  
Crysillis sat on, watching. She smiled.  
  
"Why don't you go on from the beginning, love?" she said, smiling. When Sarah looked at her curiously, the darker woman smiled. "Don't worry.. it's not what you think. He'll explain."  
  
"Well, the beginning. Yes, the beginning.." he started, looking at his daughter with eyes of love and joy. "Saber... Sarah, my real name is not Joseph Kittanning. My name is Slyder."   
  
"Slyder? The.. the hacker who.. who took down the computer network and rewrote the internet AI programs?" She sat down, and put her hand to her face, staring at her father in wonder. "How did this all happen?"  
  
"First, there are a couple things you should realize about where we are right now, Sarah. We're outside the Matrix. The matrix.. is the world as you know it. It's in actuality a large, complicated program that revolves around humanity for one purpose: to turn us into walking power supplies."  
  
"Huh?" Sarah blinked.  
  
"Let's just say that everything about where you've been.. the school you went to, the clothes you wore, what you ate.. they were all part of a very complimated simulation that was written by true AI's.. real computers with an alertness and a self-awareness." Sarah swallowed the saliva down her throat.  
  
"So.. everywhere I've been is a lie.. okay. Does that make Mom a lie? Or me a lie? And how comes you exist here if it was a lie? Where is here?"  
  
"One thing at a time." He said, tapping on her nose, as he'd done when she was little. "Your mother and I are not lies. Your mother is still plugged into the program. I, on the other hand, am free of it. As are you. We have been taken out of the program and released into the real world."  
  
"The real world?"  
  
"A very scary and depressing place, Sarah, but one that I think we need you in. One that you'll fit in. I know how hard your life's been. It nearly killed me having to sit and watch you inside of there. I wasn't even going to unplug you until you were twenty, but unfortunately, some people caught on to your existance."  
  
"You mean those suited creatures? Who were they anyways?"  
  
"Sentinel programs. AIs that exist inside the matrix and remove 'bugs' like you, I, and Crysillis. People who don't fit in or believe that the world around them is really as it seems." He paused to collect his thoughts. "Don't you want to know how I got you out of there?"  
  
Sarah nodded, the information overload starting to get to her.  
  
"I was cut out of the Matrix when I was about eighteen. Stupid me, I thought I was in love with a girl inside, who was your mother. When I was unplugged, they told me that we could never really be together, your mom and I. But I tried to find a way around that."  
  
"I found a spare pod from one of the hatching grounds. Using it, I 're-planted' myself into the matrix, being careful to fake enough signals so that the AIs inside would buy me as a natural citizen. It's a good thing I can act. I saw so many of them murder innocent unpluggeds. And all I could do was stand and watch."  
  
"After your mom had you, I realized that I couldn't stand it much longer. Things were starting to heat up in the Matrix, as the AIs were starting to get stronger."  
  
"Your mom and I.. fell apart. I realized I could never stay with a woman who didn't understand the world around her was all a fantasy, a program. I thought I could have unplugged her, like me, but by this time, she was already too old. The oldest you can unplug someone safely is at twenty, and your mom was already in her thirties, since we'd had you after about two years of marriage. It nearly killed me when I found out."  
  
He looked at his daughter and brushed her cheek. "But I realized that I could still save you, my daughter. I found out where your code was located within the fields, and I stole your pod. You and I both nearly died in that incident," he said, not looking at her. Crysillis nodded in the background.  
  
"When I re-stabilized your system, I knew that I couldn't just unplug you suddenly. So what I did is re-wrote your coding. I knocked you asleep for one second and rewired the programs the AIs had put into your brain. You were in the real world for a few minutes when you were fourteen, my child. You just don't remember it."  
  
"Anyways, by this time the AIs had caught on to my specialized code. Realizing I'd have put you and your mom in danger if I'd have stuck around, I vanished. I hated to do it to you, but there was no other way. I've lived outside constantly for the past four years."  
  
He smiled. "But I didn't miss a thing. I watched you for four years, watched you grow and mature. I even downloaded a few programs into you when I figured out you loved computers. It made your skills even better, so you could support your mom and all her operations."  
  
Sarah sat in silence. "So.. all my skills that I have.. were downloaded off a computer?" she said, looking at him. He laughed.   
  
"All skills are, essentially. Whenever somebody in the Matrix acquires a skill, it's when the AIs have downloaded, very slowly, a program into them. It gives the person the idea that practice makes things better. Not so for my little girl. You got a brand new program every day."  
  
Tears in her eyes, Sarah hugged her father. "You.. you did all this for me.. but I have to ask.. why do I have all these things in my arms? And who's she?" She nodded towards Crysallis.  
  
The woman smiled, and her braids shifted as her head did. "I'm your father's.." she glanced at Slyder, "lover, I'd guess you'd say. I know you won't like me for this fact for a few months, perhaps years. But your father did his best by your mother. Trust me, I've heard it enough," she said, a touch of sympathy in her voice.  
  
"I know I'll never be your mother.. but I'd like to be your friend out here. Living in the real world is tough, and you could use a hand sometimes. I'll be there for you when you need me," she said, and stalked out of the room, pushing her chair back into the small table that sat nearby.  
  
Slyder sat back. "She understands as best as she can. She's not like your mother, except that she does keep the ties she has with a fierce protectiveness. She's like a mother hen with her chicks when it comes to people she loves."  
  
"Do you love her more than mom?"  
  
"I'll always love your mom, Saber." Sarah looked at him strangely, but he continued. "I just love Crysillis with a different kind of love. Someday, I hope you find your own special someone." He smiled.  
  
"Dad, why did you call me Saber just now?" She asked, inquisitive.  
  
"Because that's your true name. Just as Slyder is mine. It's my identity, the name I chose to create myself as. I call myself Slyder because like a sliding tool, I can slide into any system and crack it. You call yourself Saber, because just like the ancient weapon, you can cut anything that gets in your way."  
  
He smiled, ruffling her hair. "And as for the plugs, as you so mentioned earlier... I wouldn't worry about it. Over half the population has them too."  
  
"Only half?" She queried.  
  
"Half the population was born in the place called Zion. We're actually going to go there next, because I want to take you to see someone within Zion. Someone who'll help you know what you should do with your life."  
  
Sarah gave him a strange look.  
  
"What? Like a fortune teller or something?" She laughed.  
  
"Something like that. But much better. Her name's the Oracle. And if I'm right, you'll have something special to do in your life."  
  
"How can you be so sure?" She said, getting up and standing with him.  
  
"Because of what she told me. She told me my daughter would have a very special destiny within her life. A life that could change the Matrix has we know it."  
  
"What?"  
  
Her father didn't answer as he walked down the hallway, heading for the bridge. Curious, Saber followed him, her expression one of puzzlement and wonderment.   
  
What the hell could this woman tell her about herself that she didn't already know or had just found out? What the hell was with this crazy world..? And what the hell was that movement down the hallway?  
  
**************************************************************  
  
He'd followed her outside of the Matrix, navigating until he found a sentinel body to inhabit. No wonder they hadn't been able to locate a source code. She'd been unplugged, technically, this whole time.  
  
Now it was time to permanently unplug her, before she could do any more damage. Before she could do what the program known as Oracle had said she'd do.  
  
Before she caused the beginning downfall of the Matrix.  
  
**************************************************************  
  
(to be continued.. please review! ^_^) 


	3. Zion

Disclaimer: I don't own the Matrix, Matrix Reloaded, or Matrix Revolutions. I wish I still owned Mouse-chan or Neo-kun.. *sigh*   
  
A/N: Sorry about not updating for so long. College keeps an authoress very busy.. just ask anyone who ever had to write a term paper, and you'd understand. ^_^  
  
********************************************************************  
  
"Welcome back, Slyder," a voice suddenly spouted from a microphone that was held on the top of the console. Sarah turned towards the noise and looked towards her father, a smirk of a grin slightly coming upon her face.  
  
"They seem to know you quite well."  
  
"You're father's not exactly small beans. After all, you'd heard of him even in the Matrix. That bespeaks respect."  
  
"Run that by me, with help files attached this time," Sarah said, an eyebrow raised.  
  
"The people here seem to think that I'm bigger in life than I really am," her father replied. "Don't let it get to you. I know a few people, but that's a good thing. Those same people helped me get you out, and that's important."  
  
Sarah had no response to that, but merely watched in fascination as metal doors opened in front of them.   
  
******************************  
  
"Slyder! Long time no see!" A dark skinned man with a silver tattoo running down the side of his face yelled to the man as he, Sarah, and Crysillis walked down the lowered deck.   
  
"Long time indeed, Tantrus!" Slyder grinned and ran into his friend's arms, giving the taller black man a hearty clap on the back. He then stepped back to inspect his friend.  
  
"I swear every time I see you, you grow taller!"  
  
"No, you're shrinking, old man."  
  
"Old man my ass, you're my age-"  
  
"Maybe in years. But not in mentality, little meiser!" Slyder and the man then laughed, tears running out of their eyes from laughter. Tantrus looked behind him to notice the smaller raven-haired girl standing silently to the side, her gaze one of curiousity.  
  
"And who's this?" He asked Slyder, who grinned lopsidedly.  
  
"My daughter."  
  
"Your- you finally brought her out for good! Good for you!" The tall man strided over towards Sarah, whose eyebrows were furrowed with agitation. He slightly kneeled to look at Sarah, who was fighting the urge to run back into the ship.  
  
"So, I finally get to meet the infamous hacker named Saber." Tantras grinned, then took the younger girl's left hand into his own, gripping it firmly.  
  
"I've heard a lot about you from your father. You're one tough chick."  
  
"Tough chick?" Sarah raised an eyebrow at her father, who merely gave another lopsided grin.  
  
"Well, you are rather tough."  
  
"Right. Tough." Sarah looked up at the man and gripped his hand back whole-heartedly. "Pleased to meet you. You already seem to know me, but who are you?"  
  
"The name's Tantras. I used to be your father's operator a while back."  
  
"Operator?"  
  
"The person who guides anyone who enters the Matrix; the man with the map, I'd guess you could call me." Suddenly the black-haired girl looked down at his wrist and noticed the smooth flesh upon it.  
  
"You're.. not.."  
  
"A former plug baby? Nope- I was born right out here, in the city of Zion."  
  
"Zion?"  
  
"This place," the man gestured, his hand outstretching towards their surroundings. "The last true human city. The only place where we're free."  
  
"Right," Sarah said slowly, placing her hands on the hips. "And what's so great about that?"  
  
"You told me she was tough, but not cold, Slyder," The man said to Sarah's father, who merely shrugged in answer.  
  
"Life was tough for her in the inside. I didn't help any. She'll be all right."  
  
"Well, since you're here, I'm assuming you'll be wanting to see the mainframer?"  
  
"The mainframer?" Sarah asked.  
  
"The guy who has the information your father wants. He didn't just come here to stay- although you probably will eventually stay right here."  
  
"What does my father want?" Sarah asked once more, starting to walk as the tall black man strode foward.  
  
"Coordinates."  
  
************************************************************  
  
"So let me get this straight. You want the coordinates to see the Oracle so that your daughter can see her."  
  
"That's correct," Slyder said, looking up at a light skinned woman, who gave him a raised eyebrow in answer.  
  
"So, you want to see the Oracle just so she can see your daughter... for what reason? Just so you can have your own 'fortune' revealed in your daughter?" the white-skinned woman looked at him with a questioning expression.  
  
"It is not that," Slyder responded, his own expression as well set as a carving is in stone. "It is the will of her future that she goes see the Oracle. If she does not, then she will not realize her destiny."  
  
"And just what is your daughter's destiny, Slyder? To be the One prophesized to come and save Zion? Slyder, what-"  
  
"She is NOT the One," Slyder responded vehemently.  
  
"Then why do you need to see the Oracle so badly? You must understand the position I'm in, Slyder. For someone to see the Oracle, it must be a reason that is worthy to bother her with."  
  
"When I saw her-"  
  
"Which, as you know, was not authorized, Slyder. If Leet was still around, he'd get an earful from me about taking newly awakened crewmembers to bother an already over-burdened program-"  
  
"Do NOT speak ill of Captain Leet," Slyder interrupted, his voice dangerously low. "He is beyond defending his name at this point." With a few shallow breaths, Slyder regained his composure. "I am not asking for any more crewmembers or supplies. I am merely asking for a chance to see her, so that my daughter may speak to her."  
  
The pale-skinned woman intook a shallow breath, then breathed out. "You're sure the Oracle would want to see this girl- your daughter- that badly?"  
  
"I'm certain," Slyder said, no amount of doubt within his voice.   
  
The pale skinned woman placed a hand upon her face, running fingers through weathered hair. "Slyder, I hope you're right. Because I wouldn't want this information to be used casually."  
  
"Thank you, Counselwoman Driver," the black haired man said, bowing before her, the older woman sighing as he did so. "I will be sure not to disappoint."  
  
"You'd better not," Driver responded, her eyebrows pinched, agitated. "Even I have limits. And you had better not ever stand up to me ever again about Captain Leet. He was a good husband, a good father... but a bad captain."  
  
"Just because he never returned after he took me to see her," Slyder started, then became silent. "I never meant for that to happen, Driver. No one did. Not me, not Crysillis..."  
  
"You are dismissed, Captain Slyder. Good day." With that, the older woman swept her cloak about her, striding out of the room with an expression that was unreadable. Before she completely left, she turned slightly and whispered to Slyder.  
  
"Don't you ever leave my daughter like he left me, you understand?"  
  
"I won't, mother-in-heart," he responded, watching her leave, nodding his head as she did. "I won't. I may have had to leave people I loved behind, but never again," he whispered, looking into the darkness.   
  
"Never again."  
  
*************************************************************  
  
"No, Tantras. I'm sure I don't need an operator for this. I've got Crysillis, remember?" Slyder told the taller black man, who helped the shorter man load up the captain's ship. He clapped a gloved hand on the taller man's shoulder, grinning.  
  
"Are you sure? I mean, I know Crysillis is good, but she wasn't natural born and bred- what if she has to enter the Matrix to help you two? It'd be nice to have some backup, wouldn't it?" He asked, pulling a larger box up from its ground location and shoving it into the storage bay.  
  
"Don't worry, guy. There's absolutely no reason why she would need to enter the Matrix for this. This is a simple pick-up-and-go job. I'm just going to drop off Saber and do some survelliance to make sure she's okay while she's talking to the Oracle. After that's done, we'll unplug. Simple as cake."  
  
"Cake? Dang, man, there you go with that Matrix-talk again. When are you going to wake up and realize that you are in the world you belong in?"  
  
"Oh, I know I'm in the right world," Slyder said, looking up at the surrounding walls of the human safehouse known as Zion. "I know I am. And I wouldn't ever second guess that. It's just that- certain things hold me back."  
  
"But your daughter is out of there, man," Tantras said, gripping his friend's shoulder. "And you have Crysillis now."  
  
"I would die for either of them," the raven-haired hacker said simply. "I would rip my heart out if that's what it took to save them... I love them that much. But there's still part of me that feels the heart-wrenching ache of what I had to do all those years ago- how I had to leave Saber and Kass-"  
  
"If you hadn't gotten out when you had, you wouldn't have met Leet and Crysillis," the black man said simply, giving his friend a pointed glance. "Are you sure you're okay for this mission? You say that it's a simple job, but it sounds like you could use more people, to be honest. If not for maintaining reasons, then for your own damn mental health."  
  
"No, Tantras," Slyder said, standing erect and looking the man dead in the eye. "I have to do this alone- well, not quite alone," he said, remembering Crysillis and Saber, "But I have to do this. My daughter has to know why she exists- why she was brought into being. And I can't be the one to tell her."  
  
"You never did tell me about that. What's this big destiny she's supposed to have? I know you said she wasn't the One that's been prophesized and shit-"  
  
"She isn't the One," Slyder agreed. "However... she will have a crucial role in his development."  
  
"How so?" Tantras asked, raising a dark eyebrow.  
  
"I don't know. That's why she needs to talk to the Oracle, because she would only tell me so much." Slyder turned away towards his ship, turning his head slightly enough so that his voice could be easily heard by the taller black man. "I'll be back, Tantras. And then we'll have that talk that you keep egging me on to have, okay?"  
  
"Okay, man..." the operator said as he watched the shorter man stalk off, and waited until he was out of earshot to say, "We'll have that talk, all right. And then you'll have to finally face those demons that you won't even let Crysillis help you deal with. Because that's what it means to be brothers."   
  
With that, the taller man walked away from the loading dock, fingering a certain scar on his wrist, remembering the other's blood that he had merged with a long time ago. Sometimes it was hard to be a blood brother.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
"So, you did manage to get the coordinates from her?" Crysillis asked Slyder as the man walked up the ramp, his eyes slitted slightly. He nodded, then looked up at her with deadened eyes.  
  
"How did your time in Zion go with Saber?"  
  
"You mean the girl?" Crysillis shook her head. "She's a newb, what do you expect? She looked everywhere like a child did in the mystical candy store."   
  
"Is she around?" The captain asked, pulling the black woman into his arms, pulling on her from her waist towards his own. He smiled and kissed her gently on the lips, looking deeply into her brown eyes.  
  
"No, why?" She asked, slightly archly. Her smile became slightly feral as she realized exactly what the man meant by asking if his daughter was around. "You know, dear, she is nearly an adult. She will have to realize by some point what sex is."  
  
"Yes, but I don't want to scare her TOO badly," the former hacker said, grinning like a cat. "After all, it will be the first time we've done this with another woman in the bay who's not currently attached to someone else."  
  
"Well, let's experiment, shall we?" Crysillis said, her eyes gazing deeply into the man's. The woman moved forward, then nibbled on his lip, then co-pulled her lover into another fully-fledged kiss. The two started to merge into one being, their souls and bodies dancing about each other in the dance that was often understood to be love.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
Two hours later, Slyder and his companion Crysillis found themselves at the helm, navigating through tunnels of underground to get away from the haven known as Zion. The speed at which the two seemed to interact would have surprised any who didn't know that the two were lovers, so intertwined they were in each other's souls as they were. Rocks and tunnel walls flew by them as the duo navigated simultaneously.  
  
Dark hair flashed by as a familiar young adult made her way to the helm. Sarah had finally woken up from the nap that Crysillis had suggested she take earlier- not that the girl had any doubts as to why the suggestion had been made.  
  
She hoped that she'd never be that obnoxiously horny when she was an adult.  
  
Zion had been an amazing place, Sarah had to say. The amount of people like herself- she hadn't dreamed that being on the outside could actually make someone closer to the rest of humanity- after all, the hacker had felt so alienated within the Matrix itself, a fact that came back to haunt her.  
  
The faces- the friendly smiles and grins that had been given to her, just after Crysillis and that man... Tantras had explained that she'd just gotten out, who she was. People had come up to her and embraced her, calling her 'sister'... Sarah didn't quite understand.   
  
Why would people ever think of her as someone who was worth something, let alone a 'sister'? Within the Matrix she'd been an outcast in her high school, her little 'niche' of life. Here... it was so tempting to give in, to let herself go weak from the amount of... comfort these people seemed to be willing to offer.   
  
But no. She kept on a mask the entire time she'd been inside Zion. She still couldn't forget that her father HAD abandoned her and her mother, no matter what the reason. He should've found a way to take them with him THEN, rather than wait until Sarah was eighteen and no longer allowed a choice. And then to come out and find that her father had already found himself another woman...  
  
No time for such thoughts.  
  
"So, you're finally awake," Crysillis voiced as she stepped forward to the console area. "I hope that nap of yours has you prepared. Your father got the coordinates we needed."  
  
"Coordinates?" the black-haired girl asked. "Where would we go on the outside? I thought that Zion was the only human city... unless there's another-"  
  
"There's no other, Saber," her father responded, much to Sarah's chagrin.  
  
"Why don't you call me Sarah at some point? It's my name, you know."  
  
"It's not your true name," he said simply, causing a moment of silence to whell after his response.   
  
"We're going out to broadcast frequency," Crysillis interrupted, not glancing back at the girl. "The coordinates we needed were for somewhere within the Matrix."  
  
"Somewhere within the Matrix? Oh, wait- I remember. To see that Oracle person" Sarah said, then raised an eyebrow. "And how are we supposed to get inside the Matrix?" the girl asked for a moment. "If you want me to get in that red goo again, forget it. I am not doing that AT ALL."  
  
"We don't expect you to," her father said, slightly smiling. "We have a much simpler means of getting people into the Matrix. Why don't you change into some comfortable clothes. We should be at broadcast depth within a few minutes. Crysillis and I will be back, and we'll go in then."  
  
"O- okay," Sarah said, backing away and turning towards the room that she called her own on the bridge of the ship. "I'll be back." With that, the hacker turned tail and walked back, her black hair swaying from side to side.  
  
"She has no idea, does she?" Crysillis asked her lover, smiling cat-like at him.  
  
"Nope. No clue."  
  
*************************************************************  
  
"So, let me get this straight. You want me to WHAT?" Sarah asked the dark-skinned woman who stood before her.   
  
"I want you to sit back in this chair," Crysillis reponded, giving the girl an arched eyebrow.   
  
Saber pointed at the long connecting tube that jutted out from the headpiece. "You want me to sit down and place my head," she said, pointing at the piece again for good measure, "on THAT."  
  
"Yes.." Crysillis slightly hissed back. "I want you to sit down like a good little girl and place your head," she glanced quickly at the seat for good measure, "on THIS."  
  
"Isn't.. that going to hurt a little?" Sarah sarcastically remarked.   
  
"And what if I told you that it doesn't matter if it will hurt or not?" the darker woman archly replied. "What if I told you that you have no choice in this matter?"  
  
"I'd tell you to go to hell."  
  
A moment of silence passed between the older woman and Saber, the younger crossing her eyes and defiantly staring up at the older woman. Crysillis stared at her right back, not caring about the younger woman's thoughts or feelings.   
  
"You will do what your father requested. And don't ask any more stupid questions. He's doing this for your own benefit, I hope you realize." Crysillis then pushed the girl into the seat, giving her a cold stare. Sarah gritted her teeth together.   
  
"If it's for my own good, then why isn't he here to help me?"  
  
A set of footsteps echoed down the hallway, and Crysillis gave the dark haired hacker a look before strapping the young girl into her port chair. Slyder walked down the hallway, simply dressed in a pair of black slacks and combat boots, a threadbare shirt covering his chest.  
  
"Well, are we ready to go?" He asked lightly, obviously in a good mood. Crysillis gave him a grin before the woman went over and kissed him on the lips.   
  
"It's fine. Saber's nearly ready to go. I'll be ready to operate here in a minute." The dark-skinned woman acted as if nothing had transpired between her and Sarah in the last few minutes, walking over to a computer console calmly and collected.  
  
"So, are you ready?" Slyder asked his daughter, who held her head forward, apart from the connection port that sprouted outward from the chair she was situated in. Sarah tried to play it off that she wasn't scared.  
  
"Ready as I'll ever be," she remarked, looking deep into her father's eyes. "I still don't know if I'll ever be able to get used to this.. idea that this is the real world, out here. How am I going to react whenever I enter the.. matrix?"  
  
"You'll react exactly as everyone else does," Slyder says, stroking her head. Saber's eyes widen for a moment, remembering the carresses that her father had once given her hair when she'd been small.. and how she now knew they hadn't been real; that she'd been feeling a simulation from a program.  
  
"You'll be fine, my daughter," he said, smiling gently. "We aren't going anywhere particularly dangerous, or even remotely life-threatening. There's virtually no chance that we'll even see an agent."  
  
"Agent?" Saber asked as her father strapped himself into his chair, pulling on chords and straps. "What's.. an agent?"  
  
"You've seen them," he muttered as he tightened pulleys. "Dark sunglasses, look like governmnent officials?" Saber pulled back in recognition.   
  
"You mean.. those things that took over mom..?"  
  
"Were agents. They're AI programs that govern the people within the matrix, cull the 'glitches' that are people that don't fit in."  
  
Saber's eyes were wide. "Cull?"  
  
"You've seen the news. Someone goes insane, decides to kill themselves by hanging. Someone else suddenly turns up missing, five months later is found drowned in a lake with no sign of a struggle." He looked towards his daughter, himself fully plugged in except for his main connection port.   
  
"Okay, Crys," he smiled at the woman who by this time had all her screens filled with informational datastreams. He looked over towards Saber.   
  
"Get ready, my daughter. This is going to feel a little wierd." With that, her father pulled his own connection port into his head, and closed his eyes. Before Saber had to ask about herself, she was looking deeply into a pair of violet eyes.  
  
"See you soon," she said, then Sarah saw or felt nothing except for a black cloud that filled her vision and swamped her body.  
  
**************************************************************  
  
When she opened her eyes, Sarah had already had a pre-determined idea of what would happen. She half-expected a group of black-shaded Agents to drop down and shoot at her, smiling as they pulled each of their triggers.   
  
"Saber, open your eyes," she heard her father's voice say, and Sarah did as such, blinking. She looked around herself to find that she was standing in an alleyway, the bricked walls around herself being weathered. Nothing out of the ordinary.  
  
"Where.. where are we?" The young woman looked around herself, looking for any sign of something familiar. Her father grinned. Her father.. Saber looked up at him.  
  
He was now donned in a black trenchcoat with a dark suit and tie underneath. His face appeared more refined, his features slightly stronger than they had been in the real world. He donned a pair of sunglasses.   
  
"What the hell?"  
  
"I wouldn't be saying that.. here, look at this," her father said, giving her a small circular shaped piece of glass. Sarah looked within it, only to see someone very familiar looking back.  
  
"It's.. it's me, but I'm like I remember.." She quickly ran her free hand through the hair on the back of her head. "My hair.. is longer again. And.." she felt the back of her head, and her eyes became wide, "there's no connection port."  
  
"I always told your mother you were smart," Slyder joked, then coughed, realizing that at the moment her mother was still a sensitive subject.   
  
"Yes, you've noticed the main thing about being in the matrix. You have the appearance that you believed you had when you were inside it." Her dad looked out into the distance while Sarah continued to inspect herself.  
  
"I look.. cool," Sarah commented, glancing at her clothing. A skintight leather bodysuit embraced her form, hugging her tightly. A pair of fingerless gloves donned her fingers, and a pair of armoured boots encased her legs.  
  
"You look how you want to look. Although I think the outfit must be one of Crysillis' designs."  
  
"Crysillis.. made this for me?"  
  
"She digitized it, yes," Slyder said, suddenly pulling out a cell phone from the innards of his trench coat. He placed it on his ear, then spoke.  
  
"Yes. We're fine. Transport, please," he said quietly, then placed the cell phone back into his pocket.  
  
"Who were you just speaking to?" Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow.   
  
"Crysillis. Who else?" her father said, starting to stride out from the alleyway onto a nearby sidewalk. Sarah fingered her hair, only to realize that a set of black glasses also adorned her forehead. Looking around herself pensively, the girl stepped out into the sunlight, following her father.  
  
"Where are we going?"  
  
"Shh. No talking now. Later," he said, motioning with his hand towards his daughter.  
  
As the duo walked, Saber looked around at her surroundings. She was in the middle of some city, a far cry from the place she'd called home these last few years. The metal frames and glass windows seemed to call to her, the eeriness of their calls both frightening and alluring at the same time.   
  
"Slyder?" A man wearing a black gi covered by a leather jacket suddenly stood in front of the pair, startling Sarah.  
  
"Correct."  
  
"Let's go."  
  
With that, Sarah and her father were helped into a black car with silver trim, the mysterious man having opened the door for them. Sarah looked back at the man as she stepped in the car, but he only gave her a curt nod of approval before closing it behind her.  
  
"Now we can talk," Slyder voiced, looking at a slightly confused Sarah.  
  
"Okay, first off- who the hell was that, and where the hell are we going?"  
  
"That was an associate of mine by the name of HardTech. Where we are going, you already know."  
  
"To see the Oracle-person, yes."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"...What the hell is an oracle?"  
  
Slyder chuckled, and the car began to move. "You should have paid more attention in your literature classes, Saber."  
  
"Sarah," the girl crossed her arms slightly.  
  
"Your real name is Saber," he reminded her gently before continuing. "An oracle is deemed to be a source of information. Some of the information is not what you would call normal; most of it is related to the soul and its ever striving desire to know itself."  
  
"Excuse me? In.. english or linux please?"  
  
"Heh. Basically, she tells you what you need to know. And you have something you need to know."  
  
"Why can't you tell me then?"  
  
"Because I'm not the oracle."  
  
With that, Slyder merely crossed his arms just as his daughter had earlier, the younger of the two not really happy with how her chain of questioning had gone. But then again, her father had always been.. strange.  
  
*************************************************************  
  
"Papa?" A young raven-haired girl with pigtails asked, her hair swaying to and fro as she sat on the swing.  
  
"Yes, honey?" A man with dark hair just like her own sat on a neaby bench, a woman with brown hair right beside her.  
  
"Why are we here?"  
  
Her mother laughed. "That's easy, Sarah. We're here because you wanted to come to the park and swing, remember?"  
  
"No, not that. I mean.. why are we here?" Sarah held out her hands to the sky, her small six year old self not knowing how profound her question was for a small child.  
  
"Well, let's see. You're here because of your mom and me," her father replied, his finger on his chin, thinking. "And I'm here because of my parents, and your mom's here because of her parents."  
  
"But why?"  
  
"Hmm. Well, no one really knows. Many people believe different things. Your father believes in one thing, and I believe another. We'll let you decide for yourself when you get older."  
  
"What does daddy believe?" She asked, stopping her swing enough so that she could lean against the metal chains of the swing.  
  
"Your daddy.. has a different idea about the world," the brown haired woman answered, taking her husband's hand into her own. "I don't think we'll get into it until you're older. All you need to know for right now is that you're here. And that it makes daddy and mommy very happy that you're here."  
  
"I'm here," the black-haired girl whispered for a moment, then smiled cutely, all moments of unconcious wisdom subsiding. "I'm here!" Holding her hand out towards the sun, she looked at it with wonder. She grinned, then went back to swinging.  
  
****************************************************************  
  
"We're here. Saber, are you listening?" The black-haired young woman jumped from the shock of her memories.   
  
"Saber?"  
  
"I'm coming."   
  
With that, the young woman exited the car, her now-medium length hair swaying as she stepped out. She looked up at the sky, and held out her hand just as she had when she was young, looking at it.   
  
"I'm here," she whispered aloud, wondering what was so important that this Oracle person had to tell her... wondering what it would mean to her past- and future.  
  
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(TO BE CONTINUED.... please R&R! PLEASE!) 


	4. Oracle

A/N: Thanks for reading, you guys! *smiles* Can you leave a review this time, too? *^^* I hope that the story is as enjoyable to you as it is to me... I've been working really hard on it and I'm becoming rather pleased as to where it's headed. *^^*  
  
Well, enough of that- I don't own any of the matrix trilogy (except what I have on tape... ^_~) Please R&R & Enjoy!  
  
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Sarah stood in the elevator that she and her father had been escorted to a few minutes earlier. The elevator music that hummed in the background clashed severely with the seriousness of the visual foreground; Sarah's jaw was set and her father's stance one of offensive nature.   
  
"How much longer?" Sarah asked her father.   
  
"As long as it takes," Slyder answered calmly. He continued to stare at the front of the elevator.  
  
"Why's it taking so long to get to the third floor in an elevator?" Sarah asked again. She gave her father a side-long glance.  
  
"Because this isn't merely an elevator, Saber," her father answered, still staring ahead calmly. "It's also an encryption program. In order to find the oracle, one must go through a series of encryption programs so that the Agents cannot locate where she is."  
  
"I see. And that requires the elevator taking forever for it to reach our destination?"  
  
The door chimed, and the elevator doors slid open, revealing a plain hallway with doors that lined its walls. Slyder nodded at his daughter, then walked brusquely from the elevator, his jacket swirling around him as he walked. Sarah glanced from side to side as she followed, her thoughts slightly paranoid in nature.  
  
After a few minutes of traveling down the hallway, Sarah finally stopped behind her father, who rapped lightly on a plain brown door. The door opened after a moment, revealing a lightly tanned woman standing in front of them, her hair done up in an elegant knot. She smiled and nodded.   
  
"Slyder and Saber. You're right on time. She's waiting in the kitchen."  
  
She opened the door to let the man and his daughter inside, Sarah nervous as she entered the what now appeared to be an apartment. She turned and gave the tanned woman a look as they were led from the doorway to what was apparently the kitchen.   
  
"What is this oracle person going to tell us anyways?" Sarah asked her nameless woman as they nearly entered the kitchen. The woman held out her hand towards the two of them, and Sarah was surprised to feel a slight push into the kitchen.   
  
"Wha-"  
  
"It's not what she's going to tell us, Saber," her father explained, "It's what she's going to tell you."  
  
"But I-"  
  
"She's waiting," the woman reminded her. Sarah turned to look at her father, who gave her an encouraging nod towards the kitchen. Sighing, she turned and walked inside.  
  
"Does she know what she's in for?" the nameless woman asked.   
  
"No idea."  
  
"Lucky girl."  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
The first thing Sarah saw whenever she entered the kitchen was the image of an older woman bending over a stove. She blinked, to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, then rubbed them just to be on the safe sure.   
  
"Saber. Glad you could make it- just have a seat over there and I'll be with you in a minute," the woman stated, and Sarah winced at the name she'd been called. Sighing in agitation, she crossed her arms and sat down on a nearby chair.  
  
"Don't worry, it won't be anything like a psychologist visit, honey," the woman pointed out, straightening up to reveal a dark-skinned woman whose age was difficult to pinpoint. She walked around the table and sat in a nearby chair, facing the black-haired girl.   
  
It wasn't a quick study, this woman, Sarah decided. She had eyes that seemed to be able to read into your very soul, as well as a face that could have fooled the best poker player.  
  
"So. I finally get to meet the famous Saber."  
  
"Call me Sarah," the teen muttered.  
  
"Ah, but that's just it, isn't it? You still haven't accepted your real name, have you?"  
  
"Sarah's my real name."  
  
"If you only knew yourself, you'd realize that Saber fits more than Sarah," the woman said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. Sarah watched the dark skinned woman puff and slightly grimaced.  
  
"Well. Let's see here. You've just been unplugged, and you're feeling very lost about your identity. Fortunately, my child, I have an answer."  
  
"You have an answer to who I am?" Sarah blinked.  
  
The older woman smiled, and blew off a trail of smoke. "You're Saber. A girl with a future, as long as you don't screw up."  
  
Sarah stood up and smacked her fists on the table, angry. "That doesn't tell me anything!"  
  
"Doesn't it?" The woman placed her cigarette down onto a smoking tray, and looked at the girl. "It should, my dear. Saber's not exactly a common name. As I recall, it's also the name of a weapon. A very deadly weapon used in the old arts."  
  
"But the old arts aren't even real," Sarah spat. The woman looked down, and then back up at the teenager, who was still standing up.  
  
"That's not exactly true. Humans had a history, once. The history presented in this world is patterened off the old. So you see, there were once old arts. Which leads me back to your place in this world, Miss Saber. Your name was not chosen by anyone else but yourself. In fact, if I remember correctly, you chose it based on your own hacking skills."   
  
Sarah sat back down, calmed slightly. "That's right. But what does that have to do with who I am?"  
  
The dark skinned woman picked up her cancer stick and puffed once more. "Think about it, child. A saber is an elegant weapon- but not direct. It slices through things cleanly, but at an angle. So the same can be said for you."  
  
"What am I doing here?" Sarah crossed her arms and snorted. "There's no reason for me to be here. Cut to the chase."  
  
"More direct than you should be. So you really don't know yourself yet." The woman stood up, and smiled. "All I have to tell you is what you basically already know. That, and... you will make your choice soon."  
  
"My choice?"  
  
"Everyone is offered one choice, concious or not, in this life of ours. I have yet to make mine. But you- yours is not far off."  
  
"And this... choice would be?" Sarah raised an eyebrow.  
  
The woman looked pensive, as if she were seeing things from very far away. "The choice you make will be your own, child. You will be placed in a very difficult situation. One in which you will have to decide the future of an entire world."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"A child is born every generation- one that is supposed to free the minds and bring forth a revolution within the Matrix itself. The one in this generation is about to be born. But this one will be different. This one, I believe, will succeed. And it will be up to you to make sure that the thing he needs most is there when he needs it."  
  
"That's... very vague. What does that have to do with knowing myself?"  
  
The old woman smiled, and sat back down, "It has everything to do with it. If you don't know yourself, you won't make the right choice."   
  
Sarah's mind was awhirl, and not pleasantly so. She stood up and stamped her foot on the ground. "You realize that this has been an utter waste of time, don't you?"  
  
"I don't know. What do you think, Saber?"  
  
The teen groaned, and crossed her arms. "You tell me things that I have no idea about- and then you call me by my hacker name-"  
  
"Just know this, child. One day, that background of yours will come in handy. That's all you need to know. Now if you'll stay for a minute, I can give you one of my freshly baked cookies. And you wouldn't want to disappoint me and not take one, would you?"  
  
"You're an odd one," Sarah noted.   
  
The woman put out her cigarette and smiled. "I suppose I am. But it is always the differences that make the difference, as I like to say." She stood up, and walked over to the stove she'd been at earlier. Smiling, she placed an oven mitt on and opened the door, revealing a strong scent of freshly baked cookies.   
  
She picked one off of the tray and gave it to Sarah. The teen looked at the cookie, then at the woman, who grinned.   
  
"It's not poison. Eat it. I promise you'll feel better after you do."  
  
"Right," Sarah said before she walked out the door. She gave a cursory glance back towards the door before she noticed that her father and the woman from earlier were talking. Slyder turned and saw his daughter, and grinned.  
  
"She's an odd one, isn't she? But... she told you what you needed to know, and that's what's important."  
  
"She's not odd, Slyder. She's wiser than you know."  
  
"I know, but to Saber-"  
  
"It's Sarah." The teen spat, then sighed. She looked down at the cookie, and took a bite out of agitation.   
  
"Well, then, Sarah," the woman said, standing up and leading her and Slyder to the doorway, "I hope that we see you, Saber, soon."  
  
And with that, she pushed them out of the doorway to the hall, slamming the door behind her. Sarah blinked, then twisted the knob in front of her, opening the door. When she did, she found herself staring into an empty room.  
  
"Wha-?"  
  
"Let's go, Saber," her father said, pulling at her arm slightly. "We've got to go. The people outside can only run surveilance for so long, and Crysillis is waiting," he said. He strode towards the elevator, and Sarah followed, nibbling the crazy Oracle woman's cookie as she went along.   
  
They finally got to the elevator, and they entered, Sarah giving her father strange looks the entire way down. When they were about halfway down the building, she spoke aloud.  
  
"She said that I-"  
  
"Don't tell me," he answered, staring straight ahead. Sarah raised an eyebrow, annoyed.  
  
"What do you mean, don't tell you? Don't you want to know-"  
  
"It's not for me to know. It's for you, and you alone. That's how it always is. I knew that I was supposed to bring you here a while ago, thanks to her, and I also knew that I'd meet Cry-" he coughed, not finishing his speech. He changed his tone and spoke again.   
  
"It's just not for me to know, that's all."  
  
"You're no help."  
  
"That's why she's an Oracle, my dear daughter. She gives you the information, but it's up for you to decode its meaning."  
  
"Some meaning."  
  
"How's that cookie?"  
  
"Uh-" Sarah looked down at the confection she'd been nibbling on and realized that it was all gone. She gave her father a look when it came to her that he was making fun of her, albeit kindly.   
  
"Fine."  
  
"Right."  
  
"Right."  
  
The two rode the elevator down together the rest of the way in silence, Sarah crossing her arms and pointedly ignoring her father the entire time. The elevator suddenly chimed, and Sarah and her father stepped out, turning from the elevator and walking towards the front of a lobby, where the man from before known as HardTech was waiting with another black car.  
  
"We're-?"  
  
"Yes. Quiet."  
  
The two strode forward, Sarah staying beside her father at almost the same pace that he kept. Like clockwork hands built by the same maker, they marched uniformly towards the door. Sarah's black hair swayed at the same pace as her father's short locks, the two marking a page at the same rate as they walked.  
  
Suddenly, Sarah felt a change of pace in her father's stride, and she looked to her left to see what was off. His expression was one of worriedness, and she glanced beyond his frame to see that men of similarly black suits were walking at an equally brisk pace from both sides of them.  
  
"Keep moving," her father said. "Act like nothing's wrong. Just keep moving till we can get to the car."  
  
"But won't they-"  
  
"Quiet."  
  
They continued their forward march, Sarah continuously glancing from side to side without moving her head an inch. Every step brought them closer to the car where the man in black gi waited for them.   
  
Suddenly, Sarah's ears picked up a quickening of pace, and felt a strong push at her back. Her father was forcing her to run faster.   
  
"No time- just GO!" he yelled, running beside her. Sarah felt her legs speed up, unbidding to their owner's commands to let her breathe while she did. The suited men behind them also increased their speed, their footsteps sounding as a single herd.  
  
She ran with all her spirit towards the door, towards the goal of the man in the black gi. She suddenly heard loud snaps behind her, and when she looked back, in the corner of her eye, she saw her father...  
  
Her father was shooting at the suited men, even though from what he'd told her, it was pointless. It was like shooting at air, she'd heard while in Zion.   
  
So why was he doing it?  
  
Why?  
  
"GO!" He yelled, following her and running. He continued to shell out bullets, using his left arm to shoot at the glass doors in front of them. Sarah ran towards the broken doors and rushed towards the car, her father steps behind her.   
  
The man called HardTech opened the door for her, then ran to the driver's seat of the car, allowing Sarah to jump in head-first. She turned and waited for her father, waiting for him to enter.  
  
He was still running behind her, still shooting at the continually advancing suited men. As he got closer, the suited men also came closer, at an almost exponential rate. Sarah's eyes widened as she saw one of the men come towards her father with a rifle in hand.  
  
"NO- DAD!"  
  
Slyder turned to look at his daughter, and gave a faint smile. He dropped both his guns and dived into the car, allowing Sarah to close the door behind them.  
  
"Hard... drive," he wheezed, and the car took off.  
  
"Dad? Dad, are you okay? Dad!" Sarah's eyes were wide with worry as her father continued to breathe hard in the seat beside her, his body stretched out in fatigue.   
  
"That's... the first time you've called me dad... in a long time..."  
  
"Stay with me," Sarah ordered him. "You've got to get me out of here, remember? And you weren't shot, were you?"  
  
"Well... no," he whispered, and proceeded to throw up on the floor of the car. He then sat back, and continued to breathe hard. "Just... had asthma while still plugged, so it comes back when I re-enter..." Suddenly, the voice of the man up front became audible.   
  
"Slyder? You'd better recover quick back there, because we're about to get into some serious shit-" he voiced, and made the motion of looking into his rear window. "They've gotten ahold of some transport."  
  
"Shit." Slyder wheezed once more, then picked up his cell phone and dialed.   
  
"Crysillis? We need an exit point, and quick."  
  
"Exit point?" Sarah asked, while her father concentrated on talking and breathing at the same time. He looked at her, his eyes tired.  
  
"Exit point. Place where we can get back home."   
  
It was then that Sarah screamed, however, because of the gunshots that ripped the back window of the car open. It was then that she remembered her last thoughts before passing out.  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
Well? Not quite finished yet- and don't worry, this is not a virgin-mary-is-neo's-mother fic. Actually, it's something much more subtle, like Saber herself. ^_~ Next chapter is being worked on- I promise more soon! 


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